Impact of Operating and Health Conditions on a Helicopter Turbo-Shaft Hot Section Component Using Creep Factor

The paper investigates the effects of various gas turbine operating and health conditions on its hot section component’s creep life via a simple relative creep life parameter known as Creep Factor. Using the Creep Factor, the correlation between individual gas turbine operating and health parameter and component’s creep life was established and the weight of the impact was measured. Analytical-parametric-based creep life estimation model combined with the Creep Factor approach was developed and integrated with an existing engine performance model to allow the estimation of various hot section component creep lives and the computation of the Creep Factors. The impact analysis was carried out on the high pressure turbine blade of a model turbo-shaft helicopter engine. The results indicate that for a clean engine, the change in engine rotational speed was seen to provide the highest impact on changing the blade’s creep life consumption while for a degraded engine, the presence of compressor fouling has the highest threat in changing the blade’s creep life. The analysis also shows that the Creep Factor is a good indicator of creep life consumption and provides a good technique to rank the influencing factor according to the threat they imposed.